Technology

The fundamental problem I have identified over the years I worked adjacent to this project is this. Most folks above the manager position are not technical. They're typically some sort of BA. These kinds of folks do not easily comprehend the technical merits of different solutions. All sorts of errors stem from that. Errors in estimating risk, errors in estimating difficulty, but crucially errors in telling reality from fantasy, or truth from lies. Under this framework, the ability of the organization to hire technical people who know what they're doing is more or less based on luck. This particular org struck luck with some hires and didn't with most. So now we have a group of people who will build this thing, with only a few qualified people among the unqualified. Alright. A difficult design decision has to be made. There are two proposals. One from a qualified person. Another from an unqualified one. They're both presented to a director or a VP for a final decision. The qualified person presents their design, pros, cons, etc. The unqualified one does the same, except they have an ace up their sleeve - confident lies. So they sprinkle those all around their design - everything is amazing, few cons if any, unicorns shitting rainbows and the lot. The decision maker cannot discern the lies from the truth. The unicorn design feels irresistible. It's chosen. Its designer is promoted before its ill effects are ever realized. Now the competent folk don't even get to present alternatives to the VP level. Eventually they're tired of this shit and move to a place that is less corrupted.

This wasn't confined to one project and a single set of people. It's a general problem that transcends orgs and companies.